1) The mayors and legal counsels for Cleveland and other cities in Ohio explain why they are challenging a recent law that allows telecom companies to put small/microcells anywhere they want, usurping the cities’ authorities. At about the 22 minute point, there is discussion about the interference that is caused by people living near these transmitters – people could experience worse service rather than better.

2) Below is an email written by economist Erik Andersen introducing the article written by Rafe Mair calling for an investigation into the mismanagement (willful or otherwise) of BC Hydro which has resulted in rampant increases in BC Hydro’s debt.

“Ms. Anton, if you don’t order a full enquiry forthwith on the evidence before you, in light of the statutory requirement of the Attorney General Act and your sworn oath to “see that the administration of public affairs is in accordance with law”, it would be open to fair conjecture that this inaction is to protect your political colleagues.”

3) Is BC Hydro manipulating smeters? Someone in Nanaimo believes his has been.

***COPIED FROM NANAIMO RANT AND RAVE.

I don’t know whether to call this a rant or rave. After MONTHS of tracking my electricity usage down to the watt (spreadsheet after spreadsheet of what appliances/devices in my home were used for how many minutes per day or week, the # of watts each device uses per hour etc etc), I basically proved mathematically that there is NO WAY my meter was recording accurate usage. So I contacted BC Hydro today to request that my meter be pulled and tested for accuracy. After speaking to a supervisor for over an hour (who did everything in his power to try to talk me out of having the meter tested, by the way), I insisted that he wasn’t going to change my mind and I was willing to pay the $92 to have it done by Measurement Canada. One thing that did come up during our conversation was that there were unusual “spikes” in my usage from one hour to the next. So here’s the rant/rave part – after I finally got him to understand that he wasn’t going to get me to change my mind and he agreed to send me out the application form for Measurement Canada, I started checking my meter reading every hour on the hour, trying to locate one of these “spikes”. And guess what??? My electricity consumption has dropped by 75 – 80% in the last 12 hours. NOTHING in my home/habits/usage has changed since I spoke with BC Hydro this morning. I’ve got months and months of data from their own website showing that on average my meter was recording 4KW every single hour (and sometimes much more due to those “spikes” previously mentioned). My 18 month daily average has been consistent at around 80 – 100 KW/day in the winter (although some days much higher), and 30 – 50 KW/day in the summer. Since my call to BC Hydro this morning, my meter is now recording usage of approximately 1KW per hour, for a grand total of 12 KW in the last 11 hours, or the equivalent of roughly 24 KW/day. EIGHTEEN MONTHS OF CONSISTENT, DAILY USAGE HISTORY with NO unexplained “reductions in consumption” and it’s now “magically” dropped to a level that is consistent with all my hours and hours of tracking my habits/appliances, watts/usage etc. I swear to god I’m not making this up – The ONLY thing that has changed in the last 12 hours is that BC Hydro is now aware that I am going to apply to Measurement Canada to get my meter tested. Now I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist, but I really have to wonder how this is even physically possible. The amount and timing of this “sudden” drop in usage is just so incredibly suspicious I am literally gobsmacked. If anyone can think of a reasonable explanation I would love to hear it….
Just for everyone’s info

My response:

I have been told by an Electrical Engineer that when the meter, being a computer, is pulled from the socket, it reboots itself thus removing historical data that could be used to track a meter’s errors. Also, when being tested in a pristine laboratory, the conditions are entirely different than in the “real world” where there could be external sources that interfere. Also, testing is highly controlled as are the results. That is how BC Hydro can say that they’ve checked many smart meters and they have never found one that runs fast. The Engineer also said accurate testing would take approximately 14 hours, not the few minutes normally done by BC Hydro.

Make the testing be done at your home without removing the meter. This is possible and is the only way that Measurement Canada or BC Hydro can tell you if your meter is accurate or not.

The manipulation hinted at is possible since the software and the meter itself can be controlled/changed remotely. As well as shown in tests of meters elsewhere, these meters can and do run fast whether due to mis-programming, interference, or error. Without doing what this person has done, monitoring and measuring, calculating what each appliance uses per hour, etc. or having a reliable analog running alongside, it is hard to tell if these meters are accurate or not. I have been told by an insider that people at BC Hydro know these meters run fast, but “only by a little”, perhaps $1-2 a month. Not enough for anyone to notice but multiply by 1.8 million meters, this amounts to more than $20 million of ill-gotten gains per year.

4) CBS news in the US broadcast about dangers of cell phones, spoke about the National Toxicology Project.

5) Efforts to expand 5G technology are increasing. Because millimeter waves are weak, they have trouble penetrating obstructions and even foliage can cause problems. I suggest we all plant lots of trees and tall plants around our homes.

(click on photos to enlarge)

mmWave 5G, by the way, will nominally use frequencies between 30GHz and 300Ghz (28GHz? Close enough apparently!) for wireless broadband communications and more. The advantage of using such high frequencies — 2.5GHz is the loftiest band used for cellular in the US at the moment — is that there is a lot of mmWave bandwidth available for new 5G services. It is also much easier to develop massive antenna arrays at a reasonable size with higher frequencies. (See Sprint Gets Ready for Massive MIMO, Eyes 2.5GHz for 5G.)

There are trade-offs, however, because the signal penetration and range at 28GHz or higher gets shorter and more subject to line-of-sight and foliage concerns. (See 60GHz: A Frequency to Watch for more.)

Rafe has written an explosive but accurate description of what has been happening to the public finances/financial obligations now burdening every citizen in BC.

About 10 years ago, I and others started looking at the financial trends of BC Hydro. Several of us presented our concerns to provincial politicians, BC Hydro and the BCUC but our concerns fell into dead space. First there was the deliberate turning BC Rail into a financial mess designed to make its privatization more publicly palpable. If that alone was not bad enough the then government actively engaged in bid rigging. When the matter finally did come to court and certain prominent BC politicians faced the prospect of being forced to be cross examined, they designed an escape by having two conveniently available mid-rank civil servants volunteer to fall on their swords, after providing the government settled their respective legal costs and allowed them to escape of other legal penalties. Because the courts stood by and let this happen, even though they must have had a guilty plea from the two designated “criminals”, nobody was then ever held accountable for what was an illegal action. Not the finest day for the BC legal establishment.

We have now entered the end game as described by John Perkins and that is where the financial noose is about to close so that those waiting in the wings can buy up public assets at bargain prices. It will not just be about assets like dams, bridges, airports, sea ports, highways, sewer systems, water works but also about the natural monopolies we presently enjoy. Natural monopolies exist such as the customers of BC Hydro, the customers of ICBC and so on. The transfer of such monopolies into private hands will absolutely result in increased costs to the public simply because that is what private monopolies do. You might be tempted to think that the BCUC will protect you from any excesses, but surely after seeing the Commission excluded from any role in the determination of the need for Site C and other examples that could be cited, you should check your back more carefully because the BCUC does not have it, entirely because the government does not want it that way.

I continue to stand by my words of several years ago. The board and management at BC Hydro have been either economic and financial illiterates or dutifully following the orders of those not having the public’s best interests in mind.

It is hoped that this type of information will help guide your voting next month.

Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters

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